In unsettled times, grounding is not enough.
Oh, we need to connect firmly with the land beneath our feet, true. We need to touch the soil, commune with its elemental spirit, remember where we are and how and why.
But in times such as these, we cannot afford to stand in place.
Resistance requires more of us than thoughts.
True resistance exists in acts, however small and seemingly insignificant: first, in standing up; second, in stepping forward; third, in continuing to move and act in defense of ourselves, of others, of the earth.
But to move forward, to act, requires more than knowing where we are; it requires knowing where it is we need to go. And we cannot know that without knowing where we’ve been, where we come from, our place in the world in relation to the rest of our cosmos.
We need to be centered.
By centered I don’t mean placing ourselves and our selfish interests at the center of any and every calculus; quite the opposite, in fact. Rather, we need to find that center within ourselves that is fundamentally who we are, that place of stability and surety and calm and quiet confidence in history and identity that permits us to cast aside extraneous concerns for our own welfare and take up those of others more vulnerable than we.
It’s a difficult task at the best of times.
In times such as these, it’s a dangerous one, too.
This is where our traditions support us in ways that defy description for those not a part of them. Our stories are old beyond time and alive beyond space, unconfined by the caging bars of outsiders’ beliefs or lack thereof. We are their product, their end and result — not, on an individual basis, in any way an inevitable one, but a collective logical conclusion of who and what have gone before.
And therein lies our strength.
We have survived more than this. Our very existence is proof.
And so, in dark days, we return to our ways, to that which birthed us and breathed life into our beings, to the elemental bases of blood and bone and skin and spirit, to the center of all things.
It is this source of all that is that provided the inspiration for today’s featured work. From its description in the Buckles Gallery here on the site:
The Center of All Things Concha Belt Buckle
In our own small plane of existence, from our own human perspective, our world is the center of all things. Indigenous cultures affirm this reality in our origin stories, in how we understand Turtle Island beneath the skies, amidst the winds, above the point of emergence. Wings pays tribute to this vision, one lived daily among his own people, in this complex concha belt buckle, a flowering shell-shaped disc of heavy sterling silver that blossoms into traditional symbols of the world as we know it. Celestial patterns, rising sun and setting moon and the light that flows between them, edge the scalloped buckle in concentric rings. Its repoussé center, lightly domed by hand, is chased in a loop of hundreds of individual arrow stamps tracking the motion of the spiraling winds. Ancient kiva steps symbols lead inward to the very center, heart and womb alike, where rests a large oval cabochon of emerald green turquoise with a golden brown matrix that looks for all the world like a map of Turtle Island. On the reverse, only Wings’s hallmark appears, in the embrace of another spiritual center: the Morning Star Lodge, a place of healing and medicine, guidance and power. The buckle stretches 3.75 inches across by 3-1/8 inches high; the stone is 1-3/16 inches across by 7/8″ high (dimensions approximate). Reverse shown at the link.
Sterling silver; Colorado Evans Mine turquoise
$1,800 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Our origins are as inseparable from our present existence and collective future as our bodies are from the earth and sky and waters among which we live and breathe.
Emergence is an act, but it was not one act. Simply by being, we re-enact emergence again and again and again, moving every day upward into the light.
The act of emergence is an act of resistance . . . and it makes us strong.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2017; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owners.
